Articles on sustainability

Narrated by Dr.Vandana Shiva, this video offers a simple and practical
solution to climate change and local food security. Opening your eyes to
the impact of our dependence on cheap oil in our industrial food
system, you will discover why growing your own edible garden is the key
to a sustainable world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB-vOFyIB28&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Protecting the planet is a sacred and
scientific duty

Newspapers seem to suggest we care more about the World
Cup and celebrities than problems like vanishing species or climate
change (Credit: Desrie
Govender via Flickr).

By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola

If we were to judge our priorities by the amount of space
devoted to stories in the news, we'd have to figure that the World Cup,
controversy at a hot-dog-eating contest, and the shenanigans of Paris
and Lindsay were the most important issues. Meanwhile, news about
vanishing species, climate change, and loss of topsoil appears briefly,
often buried in the B section of the newspaper, before vanishing.

It's been this way for a while. Back in 1992, some of the world's
most prominent scientists issued an urgent warning about imminent
ecological collapse. The" World Scientists' Warning to
Humanity":http://www.ucsusa.org/about/1992-world-scientists.html, signed
by 1,700 top scientists from 71 countries, including 104 Nobel
laureates, began with the statement: "Human beings and the natural world
are on a collision course." Major television networks and newspapers
ignored the warning. Yet the same news media continue to play up the
pronouncements of economic pundits who weren't even able to anticipate
the 2008 economic meltdown.

I have long maintained that what distinguishes us from other animals
is our ability to use our accumulated knowledge, experience, and insight
to look ahead, to see where the dangers and opportunities lie, and to
choose a path that allows us to avoid the hazards and exploit the
opportunities. Foresight has been the key to our enormous success as a
species. Yet today, we are turning our backs on this great survival
attribute as we ignore the perilous warnings of scientists while
focusing on the latest shift in the Dow Jones average, the value of the
Canadian dollar (to four decimal points), and the activities of Donald
Trump and Steve Jobs.

Two years before the World Scientists' Warning, astronomer Carl Sagan
presented a remarkable appeal
from scientists to religious leaders at the Global Forum of
Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival in Moscow. It was
signed by 32 Nobel Prize-winning and other scientists and is well worth
quoting at length:

"The Earth is the birthplace of our species and, as far as we know,
our only home. When our numbers were small and our technology feeble, we
were powerless to influence the environment of our world. But today,
suddenly...our numbers have become immense and our technology has
achieved vast, even awesome, powers. Intentionally or inadvertently, we
are now able to make devastating changes in the global environment, an
environment to which we and all other beings with which we share the
Earth are meticulously and exquisitely adapted."

The appeal listed numerous threats, including "depletion of the
protective ozone layer; a global warming unprecedented in the last 150
millennia; the obliteration of an acre of forest every second; the
rapid-fire extinction of species; and the prospect of a global nuclear
war which would put at risk most of the population of the Earth."

It also called on spiritual leaders to view the situation as a common
cause: "Problems of such magnitude, and solutions demanding so broad a
perspective, must be recognized from the outset as having a religious as
well as a scientific dimension. Mindful of our common responsibility,
we scientists, many of us long engaged in combating the environmental
crisis, urgently appeal to the world religious community to commit, in
word and deed, and as boldly as is required, to preserve the environment
of the Earth."

This remarkable document ends with a moving statement about an
underlying congruence of science and religion: "As scientists, many of
us have had profound experiences of awe and reverence before the
universe. We understand that what is regarded as sacred is more likely
to be treated with care and respect. Our planetary home should be so
regarded. Efforts to safeguard and cherish the environment need to be
infused with a vision of the sacred. At the same time, a much wider and
deeper understanding of science and technology is needed. If we do not
understand the problem, it is unlikely we will be able to fix it. Thus,
there is a vital role for both religion and science."

At the conference, 271 spiritual leaders from 83 countries —
patriarchs, lamas, chief rabbis, cardinals, mullahs, archbishops, and
professors of theology — added their names to the document. Now, 20
years later, we must regain our foresight and remember these powerful
warnings from scientific and religious leaders. They're even more
relevant today.